Friday, December 6, 2013

Here are some crafts to help celebrate St. Nicholas Day. Most years we try to make sacks to give to friends or to the children at our church for St. Nicholas Day. This year I painted wooden peg people to put in the sacks. Last year we made snowflake shaped paper Christmas ornaments and St. Nicholas prayer cards. I also put clementines, candy canes, spice cookies and a story from the St. Nicholas Center website in the sacks along with an explanation of why those items are associated with St. Nicholas. (http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/home/)

The evening before December 6, I read a book about St. Nicholas to my children (We have this one and this one). Then they put their shoes outside their bedrooms for St. Nicholas to fill in the night (usually chocolate coins and clementines or a small toy). I read another story about St. Nicholas to the kids this morning using the peg St. Nicholas along with some other small props to help tell the story. Then we enjoyed our spice cookies and some hot chocolate. I sometimes read several stories about St. Nicholas to the kids during the week leading up to Dec. 6 emphasizing his kindness and generosity to others then we make the sacks together to give to our friends.

Wishing you all many blessings on this day!

Troparion of St. Nicholas
O holy bishop Nicholas,
You appeared to your flock as a rule of faith,
An image of humility
and a teacher of abstinence.
Because of your lowliness, heaven was opened to you,
Because of your poverty, riches were granted to you.
Pray to Christ our God to save our souls.

Troparion for St. Euphrosynos the CookYou lived in great humility, in labors of asceticism and in purity of soul, O righteous Euphrosynos. By a mystical vision you demonstrated the Heavenly joy which you had found. Therefore make us worthy to be partakers of your intercessions.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

I apologize to those waiting to see more art history lessons posted here. My family and I have had some unexpected challenges so I have not had time lately to work on this blog. I hope to get back to posting more lessons and craft projects when things settle down for us. Thank you for your patience and enjoy the lessons I have posted so far.
Jeannie Sophia

Thursday, January 17, 2013

This is the first in a series of Japanese Art History lessons for children that I created last year. I'm presenting them to a class again this semester so I plan to post the lessons as I go. The children really seemed to enjoy these lessons. I had a variety of ages in the class ranging from 8 - 14. I love Japanese art so this was a fun class for me to teach. The first lesson is on Japanese Woodblock Prints. I have included links throughout this post to the books I referred to for this lesson, some of the art supplies I used and handouts I created. Please leave a comment below if any of the links do not work for you. You can also click on any of the images here to see them larger. All photos included are mine or are photographs in the public domain.

South Wind, Clear Sky by Hokusai

Japanese Woodblock Prints

For this lesson I focused on ukiyo-e genre prints from the Edo period that were produced roughly between the 1620s and 1867. Several different artisans were involved in the production of a woodblock print. First an artist created an original picture with brush and ink. This picture was called the model. The model was then placed in reverse on top of a piece of cherry wood. Next the engraver carefully carved out all of the wood between each line which left the picture in relief on the wood. The wood was then inked by a printer and then a damp sheet of paper was placed on top and smoothed down with a baren (a lacquered disk wrapped in bamboo leaves). The paper was carefully peeled away from the woodblock and an exact copy of the original picture appeared on the paper. To make another print the printer just had to ink the block again. For black and white pictures one block was used. If additional colors were used then one block was carved for each color.

Ukiyo-e means "pictures of the floating world" or "scenes of transitory importance". It is a word of Buddhist origin and refers to the impermanence of things in this world. The scenes and subjects of the prints capture a passing moment in time and give a glimpse of everyday life in Japan during that period.

During the time that Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shoguns (250 years), Japan was a closed country. They had very little contact with the outside world. The ruling shoguns believed that this was necessary to maintain order within the country. Japanese art flourished during this time. It was also a time of economic growth in Edo especially for the merchant class. Edo is present day Tokyo and was the seat of government for the ruling shogun. Ukiyo-e prints became the art of the merchant class and there was a great demand for woodblock prints at that time.

I highly recommend the book How to Look at Japanese Art by Stephen Addiss if you would like to learn more about Japanese Art. He gives a great, easy to understand overview of several forms of Japanese art and some of its typical features. Another helpful book for this lesson is a book for older children called Art of Japan: Woodblock Color Prints by Carol Finley. It gives a brief description and history of ukiyo-e prints as well as many wonderful illustrations. If you can not easily locate these books at your local library you can still find many helpful resources on the web with more information about woodblock prints and many examples of these prints.

For the story portion of class I read a few chapters from the book The Old Man Mad About Drawing: A Tale of Hokusai by Francois Place. Katsushika Hokusai was a very popular print artist during the Edo period. He is best known for his series of prints Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. In the west his most famous print is The Great Wave off Kanagawa (see the picture to the right). The book The Old Man Mad About Drawing is a fictional tale of Hokusai and a little boy named Tojiro. The book is too long for me to read during a class period so I chose a few chapters to read because they gave a great description of woodblock printmaking. If you are doing this lesson at home with your own children you may want to read the entire book with them. I gave my class a little background info on the characters in the story and then read aloud the chapters At the Old Painter's House, The Woodblock Engraving Studio and The Great Wave. I briefly showed them a copy of the print The Great Wave off Kanagawa while reading the chapter about that print and then we discussed the print more fully later in the class.

However, the first book I mentioned is the one I prefer since it gives such a great explanation and pictures of the printmaking process as well as a delightful fictional story about the artist Hokusai. The artist signed his works with various names as he went through different phases and styles in his career. The name he chose for himself later in life was "Gakyō Rōjin Manji" which means the Old Man Mad About Drawing.

EXAMPLES OF ART:Before showing the children examples of Japanese woodblock prints I went over some of the typical features of Japanese art. For class I wrote out these characteristics on a poster board to make it easy for everyone too see. This list does not include all of the characteristics of Japanese art, but gives a basic overview. I read through each one and explained them briefly. I will refer back to these characteristics throughout the lessons especially while we are viewing some examples of Japanese art.

The first print I showed the children was the Hokusai print The Great Wave off Kanagawa (see the picture above) that was described in the book excerpt that I read at the beginning of class. I asked the children what they saw in the picture that is related to nature (see the list of characteristics). Some answers were water, ocean, wave, Mount Fuji, mountain, people (the Japanese consider humans as a part of nature). We went through several of the characteristics such as space - I pointed out the asymmetry and empty space in the picture. I also pointed out how the picture captures a moment in time which is another characteristic of Japanese art and ukiyo-e woodblock prints in particular. I asked, what will happen in a few seconds to the wave? The wave will come crashing down. I pointed out Mount Fuji in the background and asked what will happen to Mount Fuji in a few seconds? Nothing. Mount Fuji is more permanent and stable in contrast to the temporary wave that will soon come crashing down and disappear. I also pointed out the smaller wave in the foreground. What does the wave look like? It is another Mount Fuji and looks similar to the real Mount Fuji in the background yet the wave is only passing. We talked a bit about how the people in the boats were reacting to the wave and how we might react in a similar situation. The Japanese try to live in harmony with nature instead of trying to control it or master it. They realize that some things in nature are more powerful than themselves such as a huge wave. The people in the boats are not panicking, but seem to be calm and bowing down to the wave and to their fate. There are many things you can point out and discuss with the children in this wonderful and powerful picture.I went on to explain that Hokusai created many prints with Mount Fuji in them. Mount Fuji is a very popular subject in Japanese art. In some of Hokusai's prints Mount Fuji is in the background and in some it is the main subject of the picture. I showed them a Hokusai print with a large Mount Fuji that takes up almost the entire picture. If you do not have any books at your local library with examples of Japanese prints then you can do an internet search and find many examples of Hokusai's work as well as other Japanese print artists.

A print by Hiroshige

Next I showed the children a couple of prints by Hiroshige another well known and well loved print artist from the Edo period. I especially like the print of a man chasing his hat in the wind (click on the image to see it larger). This is a great example to discuss playfulness and humor in Japanese art. Remember to refer back to the list of characteristics and ask the children which ones they notice in the various prints you view. You might also mention that after Japan was opened to the outside world in the late 1800s many prints made their way to Europe. These prints greatly influenced the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists of the time including Vincent Van Gogh.I also showed the children a few other examples of Japanese prints by other artists. I wanted to show them examples of some of the main subjects that are depicted in Japanese prints such as kabuki theater actors, children, birds and flowers and beautiful women. I especially like the print by Harunobu, Woman Admiring Plum Blossoms at Night . Do show the children a variety of different prints, but don't overwhelm them with too many. It's better to take a little more time to really look at and discuss a few select prints than to try to go through too many at one time. One of the goals of these lessons is to help children learn to look at and think about art.There are so many interesting subjects in Japanese woodblock prints that you can discuss with your children so have fun with it!

PROJECT:

scratching the design into the foam

I wanted the children to have an idea of what it's like to make a print, but of course actual carving of wood blocks was out. So we used scratch foam. They do not carry this at my local craft store so I had to order it online. It can be purchased here
. It becomes a little pricey with shipping however, so if you aren't doing this project in a classroom setting you may want to just use the foam from one of the trays on which produce is packaged. Just cut away the sides and use the remaining bottom piece. You can use a pencil or pen to scratch the picture into the foam. Have the children scratch it deep enough to make a decent impression, but not hard enough that it tears all the way through. I offered the kids in my class some scrap paper to sketch a design first if they needed and then they used pens or pencils to draw into the foam.

foam tray from the grocery store

block printing ink

smoothing out the paper after placing it on top of the inked foam

We used water soluble block printing ink, but you can use tempera or acrylic paint instead. We also used brayers to roll on the ink, but you can brush the paint on if you don't have the rollers on hand. I squirted out some ink on paper plates and coated the brayers with the ink before letting the children roll the ink on their foam piece themselves. While the foam piece was lying on the table with the picture side up I had the kids press a blank piece of paper on top of the inked foam and press down while smoothing it out with their hands. Then they peeled off the paper. I have an extra large class this session so I wasn't able to help each individual child as much as I would have liked, but they all did really well and were able to do it mostly on their own. Their pictures came out nicely except I didn't think to mention to them that if they wrote any letters or words they would come out in reverse when printed. So a lesson learned for me!

A second quick project I had the children make at the end of class was their own inkstone (suzuri) to be used in next week's lesson. An inkstone is used in ink brush painting. Traditionally an ink stick is rubbed in water in the inkstone which creates a liquid ink. We will be using ink that is already in liquid form in my class, but I thought it would be fun for the children to have their own inkstones. Real inkstones are made from actual stone, but we made ours out of black self-hardening clay. I gave the kids some bamboo skewers to carve designs in their inkstones if they wished. After the stones are dry I will brush on a coat of Mod Podge to make them less porous and more liquid proof. You may be able to brush on some white glue mixed with a bit of water instead if you don't have any Mod Podge on hand.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Byzantine Architecture- architecture of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire centered in Constantinople.

Hagia Sophia

For this lesson I focused on Byzantine church architecture. After the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity, Christians could begin to erect permanent structures for worship, baptism, etc. The first churches in the Roman empire were built in the basilica style. See http://hereisthechurch.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/basilica-architecture/ for an overview of basilica style architecture.

Eventually Byzantine artists in the eastern portion of the Roman empire began to break away from the classical styles and created a new style filled with symbolism and a magnificent use of space especially through the use of a dome to represent the "dome" of heaven.

Some characteristics of Byzantine Church Architecture:

Cross-section of Hagia Sophia

* domed central-plan church
* cross shaped building (usually a Greek cross - two arms of almost equal length)
* round arches
* circular windows
* mosaics (or frescoes) decorating the interior
* the dome functions symbolically as the "vault of heaven" and was the focus of the structure
* central plan structures were first used as tombs, baptistries and shrines to martyrs
* later developed into churches
* Constantinople was inspiration for Byzantine style in other areas

STORY: I read from the Story of the World: Volume 2 The Middle Ages for this lesson. There is a chapter on the Byzantine Empire. I did not read the entire chapter as I try to keep the story portion of class to 5-10 minutes. I just pieced together parts of the chapter and gave them a quick overview of Byzantium as well as focusing on Justinian. The Emperor Justinian was the most important ruler of what came to be known as the First Golden Age of the Byzantine Empire. He completed many important building projects in Constantinople and Italy during his reign including the beautiful Hagia Sophia Cathedral. The Hagia Sophia was rebuilt by Justinian after the previous structure was destroyed in a fire. It is considered to be the epitome of Byzantine architecture and served as a model for many other churches. The chapter in the Story of the World gives a nice description of the Hagia Sophia, especially the dome and mosaics. It is best to do this lesson before the other Byzantine art lesson I posted as this will give the children a basic understanding of mosaics.

EXAMPLES OF ART:
I focused on the Hagia Sophia Cathedral and showed the children various photos of the exterior and interior. There are many photos on the internet (see http://www.hagiasophia.com/listingview.php?listingID=19&name=Gallery) and I have included some here that are in the public domain (click on any of the images here to see them larger). You might mention to the children that the minarets were added later when the area came under Ottoman rule and are not original to the design.

Floor Plan of the Hagia Sophia

I explained a bit about the different types of early churches. The first churches and other Christian buildings were based on either rectangular Roman basilicas or round-domed structures also known as central-plan churches. The basilica plan churches usually included an atrium (a forecourt), the narthex (an entrance or lobby area), a long central area known as the nave and an apse (a semicircular projection). Sometimes there is also a transept that crosses the nave horizontally near the apse. With the transept the building is T-shaped and known as a Latin-cross plan. Central-plan structures with domes over the center were first used as tombs, baptistries and shrines to martyrs. Central-plan churches usually have an atrium, a narthex and an apse, but the nave is usually much shorter. In basilican churches the focus of worshipers is drawn toward the apse. In the central-plan church the dome is the focus. As mentioned above, the dome functions symbolically as the "vault of heaven" and draws the gaze of worshipers upward. Often a fresco or mosaic of Christ Pantocrator is found inside the central dome. The central-plan church (also sometimes referred to as the Greek-cross plan) is characteristic of Byzantine church architecture. If you have access to the Marilyn Stokstad Art History book (volume 1), there is nice example of these two types of church architecture in the Early Christian, Jewish and Byzantine Art chapter. This quiz that goes along with the Art History book I mentioned shows a nice example of a central-plan church (the answer to the question for that diagram is C: atrium, narthex, apse, dome) as well as a basilica church plan at the bottom of the page.

Interior of Hagia Sophia

Here are some links with examples of Byzantine architecture that you may find helpful: http://www.greeceathensaegeaninfo.com/h-athens/byzantine/byz-archetecture-primer.htmhttp://www.learn.columbia.edu/ha/html/byzantine.html (this website has some nice 360 degree panoramas - you will need QuickTime to run it.)PROJECT: We did a very simple project for this lesson. I gave the children pencils, markers and paint and had them design their own Byzantine style building. I included some gold paint since the use of gold is very prevalent in Byzantine art and architecture. I used standard sized white card stock for their pictures so they would fit in their 3-ring binders and the card stock is sturdier for painting. You can use any kind of paper however.Another idea if you would like to focus on the layout of the interior of a Byzantine style church (or a basilican style church as a contrast) is to have the child(ren) build a floor plan of a church out of some sort of blocks (such as wood blocks, Legos, etc.). Then you could point out the different areas such as the narthex, apse, nave, etc. This would be a great project for the kinesthetic learner.

I used the same handout as I did for the other Byzantine Art lesson as these two lessons really go together. Again, it would be a good idea to present this lesson on architecture first if you are using the Story of the World as it gives a nice introduction to mosaics which we discussed in the second lesson. Here is a link to the handout I created: Byzantine Art Vocabulary Handout
And here is a link to the other lesson I posted on Byzantine Art.

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About Me

Introduction

Hi, I'm a homeschooling mom of three who loves art, crafts, history and all things creative. I have taught drawing, art history and history classes to children in my local homeschool community. This blog is a place to share some of the projects I have done with my own children and with children of various ages in the classes I have taught. I am also an Orthodox Christian so I will be sharing some of the Saint and Feast day craft projects and lessons we have done as well. I hope to foster a love of creativity and a sense of wonder in my children as they grow. I would love to hear how you do that in your own home or classroom and I hope you enjoy the projects and resources you find here!